Outside an infotech park,dreams

The Hinjewadi park is being implemented in phases,with the first two phases complete and the third phase in progress. Land acquisition for the fourth phase is yet to begin. The first phase of the park was set up on 198 acres of land in Hinjewadi village while for the second and third phases,the government acquired 1,455 acres from Maan villagers. The fourth phase is also planned on Mann land. Villagers say that since most of the land has come from Mann,the park should be named Mann-Hinjewadi infotech park.

But there’s more to the new sense of ownership that the villagers of Mann feel towards the park. They realise that the park has changed the profile of their village. There are more jobs now as villagers work as watchmen,peons,gardeners or drivers with software companies.

Vimal Mohite,sarpanch of Maan,says the population of the village has risen from 8,000 four years ago to about 12,000 as some people have opted to live in the village to cut down on travel time. It helps that the village has good roads,a water tank that assures regular supply and good drainage lines. “We cannot lag behind in development with the infotech park so close by. We will be part of this change,” she says.

The “change” also shows in the aspirations of the villagers. “Around 500 of the 1,500 school-going children here now go to English-medium schools,” says Mohite. “Everyone wants that their child to be a software engineer in the infotech park.”

Since everyone can’t afford “English schools”,the zilla parishad school in the village has set up a computer lab for its students,with help from some of the software companies in the infotech park. The school was even adopted by Infosys as part of its ‘school adoption programme’. “The government initiative to teach children is being implemented strictly in the school. That will,hopefully,help them when they become engineers,” says Santosh Bhegade,a teacher at the school.

“Engineers”. That’s what every second child in the village now hopes to be. They already have a role model in Manisha Pardeshi,now in her final year of mechanical engineering and on her way to becoming the first woman engineer in the village.

Manisha’s family gave up half their land for the infotech park. “My younger brother is doing his civil engineering in a city college while my elder brother is a contractor in the infotech park. Earlier,we had to live off our land but thanks to all this development activity,we have our own careers,” she says.

Rahul Pahune,son of a labourer at a brick kiln,too has been part of the change. He got a job with a construction company at the infotech park after his diploma in civil engineering. “After my class X,I didn’t know what to do. It was on the insistence of my school teacher that I did my diploma but now the situation has changed. Even a class V student in the village school knows he wants to be part of the software industry,” he says.

Now with the fourth phase of the infotech park in sight,villagers say they are ready to part with their land,but are clear that the compensation package should be better. “Last time we got 7.10 lakh per hectare as compensation money. That’s not enough. We now want the government to let us deal directly with the software companies,” says sarpanch Mohite.